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By Anne BarnardTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Friday January 11, 2013 6:24 AM

BEIRUT — Syrian rebels raided a key northwestern air base yesterday that they had been trying to
seize for months, according to anti-government activists, rebel commanders and Internet videos
posted by rebel groups.

One activist said government forces, determined not to let the attackers seize the helicopters
and warplanes parked on the tarmac, were trying to destroy the aircraft by shelling them.

According to the videos and reports from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an
anti-government group based in Britain with a network of contacts inside Syria, fighting raged for
hours. Rebels, including fighters from jihadist groups Jabhet al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham, held
parts of the Taftanaz military airport in Idlib province.

The videos showed what appeared to be rebels in a commandeered armored vehicle driving near a
fence on the base and firing at buildings in the distance. Smoke could be seen rising from those
buildings, as well as from fires raging near helicopters parked on the tarmac.

The government has increasingly relied on helicopters from the base to assault rebels and to
resupply troops fighting to contain the nearly two-year uprising against Syrian President Bashar
Assad. The rebel siege of the base has lasted for months, so entering it would be an important
achievement.

Abu Moyaed, the leader of a rebel battalion participating in the attacks, said in an interview
from Turkey that the fighters had entered the airport and destroyed armored vehicles and aircraft,
but then withdrew.

“It’s very hard to stay there,” he said, asserting that the government had used
surface-to-surface rockets to attack their positions, as well as airstrikes.

Moyaed said even though his fighters seized ammunition from the base, “to gain control over the
airport costs us three times as much ammunition as what we’re going to get from inside.”

The Syrian Observatory said more than 15 helicopters were damaged during the fighting or were
already out of order, and that rebels had detained 13 government soldiers and 11 members of
pro-government militias.

“The battle is still raging,” said Tarek Abdel-Haq, an activist in Idlib reached on Skype
earlier yesterday. “All that’s left is the main building of the airport, but the regime is shelling
the town of Taftanaz to force the rebels to retreat.”